At the end of the inspection, the business is given one of six ratings between zero and five. The top rating of five means the business had very good hygiene standards.

Often, people can be shocked to discover their favourite eatery has a poor rating.

Paul Turner, principal environmental health officer at Hull City Council, talks to the Mail's Craig Jones about the scheme and how achievable a five rating is.

Firstly, can you please tell us about your role?

“Principally, my role is to stop food poisoning, stop problems with food but the job encompasses so much more. For example, we investigate confirmed cases of food poisoning and we also investigate when people suspect they have suffered food poisoning. We are also asked to drop into establishments and give food safety advice.

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“There’s a team of just under 10 of us who carry out 100 inspections a month but then there’s roughly a dozen food poisoning cases, 20 or 30 service requests for advice amongst other things. Every week is busy, I must say.”

How easy is it to get a five?

“This is not an unachievable standard if you have basic compliance with the law you are about there. There’s lots of very small businesses, ones in very old premises who achieve this by good working standards.”

How bad does somewhere have to be to get a zero?

“If there’s an imminent risk to health we will shut a business. People sometimes expect zeros to be shut automatically but that isn’t how it works. The business has to be that bad that it poses an imminent risk to public health.

The Harvester Oyster Catcher was given a zero food hygiene rating following an inspection in June

“I can guarantee all those ones and zeros we’ve been back to them, sometimes the next day, and on occasions we’ve served legal notices. This has resulted in work and improvements being carried out.

“All premises get a detailed report after we’ve visited them.”

Are businesses ever shocked by their ratings?

“Sometimes but mostly people really do know, especially if they’ve previously received a high rating, when standards have slipped. Problems come from the fact that people don’t always have experience running food businesses and might not have sought advice from us.

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“And, that’s the wrong way to approach things, they should have registered and sought our advice. That’s a common mistake which tends to lead to a bad rating. If a business has failed the public need to know.”

Often, businesses claim they’ve got a poor rating through a technicality, such as paperwork. Can that happen?

“That’s a myth I want to debunk. The way the scoring for a food hygiene rating works is on three broad areas. Structure, practices and the third area is confidence in management.

“That last one encompasses the training, the willingness to compile, the track record and the documented systems in place. That’s what people might call ‘the paperwork’ but if you don’t compile that’s a major failing. We always say, you don’t score a zero for nothing and every business has an inspection report listing their failings.

“All we do with the ratings is turning that detailed reporter into an easily accessible reference for the public to make an informed decision.”

Are there any other myths you wish to address?

“We can’t go every year to premises, there’s 2,500 premises in Hull and less than 10 of us, so we can’t do every single one of them. We have to analyse them on a risk basis. Another myth is that we tell them we are coming - the visits are always unannounced.

“A little correction too, for anyone confused by this, the system is not stars as we don’t want to give out this wrong image by awarding stars. It is simply a rating system.

Ambiente Tapas received a zero food hygiene rating in Humber Street

“One of the other myths is that people say ‘oh I wouldn’t like to do your job’ and ‘the things you see’. Honestly the vast majority of businesses are very good but, of course, there are some which are worrying and challenging.

“I have been doing this job for 20 years and across the board standards have improved but there does remain a small core of those who are not compliant.

“They are the ones who get our attention, I know lots of people say ‘that place should be inspected more’ for arguments sake, but places that have been compliant time and time again we give them the benefit of the doubt and we’ll focus on the ratings of ones and the zeros. Although, we’d never leave a business high and dry.”

How are you received?

“You might suspect animosity but that isn’t the case. Lots of businesses want to welcome us in as they are using us as their free food hygiene consultants.

"We aren’t always the food police. We really welcome it when businesses who are just setting up, changing what they do or perhaps in need of a refresher and ask us for guidance. We’d always ask people to call us in if they are after advice.

What improvements have you seen from the rating system being introduced?

“Just looking at the fives. In 2013, there were 636, then 746 in 2014, that moved to 826 in 2015, to 987 in 2016 and we currently have 1,069 with five ratings. There are 12 zeros at the minute.

“People can rely on the fact we have been in every fridge, looked in every toilet and made every check possible. I’ve seen comments on the Mail’s website and I know people value what we do.

“There’s been lots of articles in the Mail and the public in East Yorkshire have really taken to the ratings scheme. Honestly, people do eat out and shop by those ratings.”

Currently, it is not a legal requirement to display food hygiene ratings. Do you see that changing?

“There’s certainly discussion and I think long-term that will be the case which can only be a good thing.

“It will be another improvement in the scheme. I don’t know when it is coming in but it will be the final piece in the jigsaw to drive up compliance even more.

“When people have got a three or a four we tell them to put them up because people will assume it is a lower rating.

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“If people aren’t happy with their rating they have three courses of action. They can appeal, we offer a reinspection rescore where they follow the issues we’ve raised and make improvements. There’s also a right to reply which the businesses can have published on the FSH website to respond to the inspection.

“We get a good intake on reinspections and we’ve accepted most applications for them. We are keen to find sustain compliance. We aren’t after a quick-fix and things dropping off again.”

What would you say to food businesses seeking hygiene guidance?

“We’d always encourage businesses to get in touch with us if they have any doubts as we are happy to help and provide assistance.”

To contact Hull City Council’s food safety team call 01482 300 301 and you can see the ratings of every food business on the rating scheme by visiting www.food.gov.uk.